From niche to norm: Toward greater consideration of environmental sustainability in research via impact sections

The rapidly worsening climate crisis, deforestation, and biodiversity loss threaten our 21 st century business model.These developments also reverberate within organizations, carrying important implications for leadership and everyday work practices (see also APA Task Force on Climate Change, 2022; Ones & Delchert, 2012).In this commentary on Khner et al. (2025), we argue that having I-O psychology researchers more explicitly integrate environmental sustainability implications in their publications would support efforts to address the climate crisis and enhance the practical relevance and societal impact of our field.To that end, we propose a thought-provoking initiative to enhance the visibility of environmental sustainability by introducing dedicated environmental impact sections in our field's literature, even when the primary focus of the research is not on pro-environmental behavior or sustainability-related outcomes.With this initiative, we aim to underscore that the climate and environmental crises constitute a cross-cutting concern for all scientific disciplines.Implications for environmental sustainability can arise from unexpected sources Khner et al.'s framework focuses on environmental sustainability.Yet, their working definition relies on abstract constructs ("enhancing human well-being while keeping resource use within the regenerative limits of ecosystems to meet the resource and service needs of present and future generations," p. 3) that may be difficult for I-O psychologists to operationalize (for reviews, see Ones & Dilchert, 2012;Zacher et al., 2023;2024).Further, this ambiguity risks a jingle-jangle problem over what counts as green, distracting from the urgent need for impact.Building on Khner et al.'s impact-first rationale, we, therefore, argue that I-O psychology should broaden its scope: Nearly any empirical insight-whether on remote work, AI adoption, team dynamics, or performance appraisal-may carry implications for environmental sustainability and climate action, even if such outcomes are not the study's primary focus.There are many instances of potential environmental impact in general I-O psychology research, even when green behavior is not the primary outcome of interest.For example, recent research has demonstrated that employees' well-being and recovery experiences can be enhanced by exposure to natural environments (Hilbert et al., 2025), and these findings, when translated into practice, support arguments for preserving forests and protecting biodiversity.As another example, although research on green leadership has grown substantially (e.g.,